Creekside Cheese + Creamery
3990 Chaplin Rd, Kent, BC V0M 1A2, Canada V0M 1A2 Agassiz, BC, Canada

The life of a farmer. Always busy growing and harvesting crops and/or caring for animals. Always anticipating a slower time just around the corner that never really seems to materialize. Right now is a crazy time of year for farmers. We’re racing against the weather to get our crops harvested, crops that will feed our animals for the next year. Quality and quantity are both important - we need enough feed to store to last until next harvest, but we also want it to be top q...uality to keep our animals healthy and productive. It can be a bit of a balancing act - waiting an extra week or two might boost yields but the quality might suffer, or the weather could turn. It can be a stressful and challenging time as we try to make choices that will have the most benefit for our cows and their milk. This year especially we are extra-conscious about feed quality because what we feed our cows will directly impact the taste and quality of the cheese we plan to make. As a single-farm-source cheese plant, our cheese will showcase our cows’ milk, and quality milk is an absolute necessity for every good cheese. So now while the days turn into weeks with a blur that almost defies understanding, we know that our long hours of work will be appreciated when we start making cheese come spring. It will be so rewarding to literally taste the efforts of the year before - and we can’t wait to share that experience with all of you!

Our cheese making plans are coming along well! We’re in the final stages of approvals - just waiting on final architectural plans and building permits. It looks like we will begin building in approximately one month, which still should work well with our goal of being open for sales by early Spring. But while we wait to start building, we’re still busy! Farm life is busy at this time of year with corn and grass harvest starting soon. Gotta get that feed stored for winter! Aa...aand... We’ve still managed to sneak in some cheese trials too! Right now we are aging a few wheels of raclette, plain Gouda, and this cumin spiced Gouda. Although we can’t use our real cheese making equipment yet, we’ve managed to work up a system to make small batches of cheese at home. It’s a good way to learn more about the cheese we plan to make and adjust our methods to achieve the taste and texture we’re dreaming of. Now we just need to wait a few months to try these beauties - can’t wait! See more

So much cuteness on the farm right now! We’ve had so many new calves being born that our regular calf nursery is full to overflowing. We had to get a bit creative for the last four calves that were born and so we repurposed an old grain bin into a huge calf shelter complete with an outdoor run. What do you think? Don’t these cuties look like they love their new digs?

When we start selling dairy products this coming Spring, you can be absolutely confident that those delicious cheeses and creamy milk were produced by cows who are treated with respect and affection every single day.

Get ‘em while you can! We’ve got new stock coming in a few weeks and need to make room in our beef freezers! These guys are part of our July batch of meat so are still super fresh if you want to stock up your freezer with fall and winter comfort food basics. And while roast beef might not be typical summer fare to you, these tasty, marbled cuts are so versatile. They’re mostly the slow cooking types of roasts that can be prepared in a crockpot or instapot that won’t heat up y...our kitchen. And not to brag or anything, but I’ve got a pulled beef sandwich recipe that will knock your socks off. I might be persuaded to share With new schedules and routines around the corner as the kids head back to whatever school will look like for you, comforting meals like this are just the ticket for a smooth transition. Anyway, all roasts are 15% off while supplies last. $6.80 - $10.20/lb depending on the cut, with most roasts being 2.5 - 3 lbs. Options include sirloin, chuck, pot, and rump. Grass fed, pasture raised, and organic. Judging by how quickly our roasts sold out during our last sale, you’re gonna want to stop in soonish to snag this steal of a deal. Hours: Saturdays 10 - 4 Farm store location: 3990 Chaplin Rd, Agassiz

Our farm is a family farm. What does that mean? For us, it means that our family is responsible for the majority of the cow care and husbandry, cropping, and, of course, cow snuggles that take place on our farm. Our cows aren’t just a source of income for us, they’re a valued, appreciated, and loved part of our family. It’s so heart warming to watch our children develop love, affection, and respect for our cows. Those traits and feelings are the hallmark of every good farmer.... Our eldest son Riley and Milly here have a very sweet bond. Milly is extremely gentle and calm and enjoys interacting with her young farmer so much. She’s the first to approach him when doing barn chores or pasture checks, ambling over for a hug and a good scratch behind her ears. She’s a good milk producer and a trouble free cow, but it’s her character that has made her a herd favourite for our whole family. When you buy dairy and beef products from our farm store, you’re supporting this bond. Without your support we wouldn’t be able to spend our days showering our girls with affection.

It’s Food Day Canada! How are you celebrating? We’re getting together with a couple of friends and this lovely Canadian cheese this evening! All except one of these cheeses was found in our local grocery store - and they are all proudly made in Canada! The cheese in the top left? That’s our last remaining piece from La Belle Vallée Fromagerie - and one we can’t WAIT to re-create here once our cheese plant is up and running! We’ll pair these beauties with some Canadian charcut...erie and condiments: honey, hazelnuts, fresh strawberries from the garden, homemade jalapeño peach jelly, artisan breads from our local bakery that sources Canadian grains .... mmmm! So many wonderful Canadian grown and made options to satisfy our palates and appetites. As Canadian dairy farmers and aspiring cheesemakers, we so appreciate the efforts so many of you make to ensure the dairy products you buy in your local stores sports that little blue cow as a guarantee that that product comes from Canadian farms, produced by farmers just like us. Your support allows us to live this life we love so much, caring for the animals who mean the world to us. And so on this Canadian Food Day we would like to express our thanks to you for putting your confidence in our Canadian farmers and processors and supporting us with your purchasing habits. We are SO thankful for you! But we’d also like to encourage you to think about ALL of your purchasing habits. We’d love to hear about your favourite Canadian products - poultry, egg, beef, grain, honey, nuts, berries, seafood ... the list goes on and on! Please share your favourite Canadian foods in the comments below. We too are so interested in learning more about how we can support our fellow Canadians now and always. Cheers! #FoodDayCanada

It’s here!!! There was a thrill of excitement here on Chaplin Rd when our new-to-us milk processing building filled with cheese and milk processing equipment arrived at the farm! We still have a lot of work to do before we can start processing, but we’re one step closer to our goal! Next up: getting our architectural plans approved by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control and applying for a building permit from the District of Kent. For now, we are spending hours inside of this little building, dreaming, planning, and envisioning the beautiful delicious cheeses we can’t wait to make and then share with you!

Happy Monday morning from the farm! Do you follow our farm page Creekside Dairy? You’ll find many more photos of our beautiful brown cows there! Olivia and her friends are enjoying the warm sunshine out on pasture today. We’ve had a unusually wet summer so far which has made for lush re-growth of delicious grass on our pastures, and our cows are just loving it. There’s nothing more soothing than sitting down amid a herd of grazing cows: the rhythmic rip, chew, swallow combine...d with the buzzing of bees zooming through the clover blossoms is absolutely idyllic. Although farm life in the summer time can be crazy busy, we think it’s important to also take time to just enjoy this peace and tranquility when we can. Come winter, these sounds and smells will just be a distant memory so we’ll soak this up while we can! And we can’t wait to start making cheese from the tasty and nutritious milk these cows are producing. Nothing beats the flavour of milk from pastured cows and we are so excited to taste that flavour profile in cheese. Patience, patience my friends... The wait will be worth it!

We know you’re all so excited for cheese and milk, but did you know that we also sell our own beef? Our customers rave about the flavour and quality! We are currently fully stocked with a large variety of cuts, including steaks, roasts, ground beef, stewing beef, short ribs, and more. Come on out to the farm today to pick up some staples or splurge on some excellent grilling steaks for a treat. We’d love to meet you! Address: 3990 Chaplin Rd, Agassiz Hours: Saturdays 10 - 4... Payment: cash, debit, credit, e-transfer

When our cheese dreams turned serious last year, we started touring local small dairy processing facilities. We made so many new, interesting, and beautifully helpful connections this way! During one of our quick trips, our friend Ray from @little qualicum cheesworks told us about a unique opportunity that might be a good fit for our plans. A small cheese maker in Quesnel was selling his processing equipment and the mobile building he used to make his cheese. After months of ...dreaming and re-thinking our dreams, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to us! We got in touch with Florian Bergoin of La Belle Vallée Fromagerie and made an appointment to visit. After meeting Florian and viewing the facility we knew this was just what we were looking for! La Belle Vallee Fromagerie specialized in washed rind alpine style cheeses. As an interesting aside, we had actually tasted (and LOVED!) these cheeses at last winter’s BC Dairy Conference. Florian, the cheese maker, was born and raised in the French Alps and learned his cheesemaking skills from the real experts. And now we have the opportunity to learn from him! Florian is also a professional biologist working in forestry and he has decided to pursue his career in forestry. We’re so thrilled that he has agreed to pass on his cheesemaking knowledge to us. When we are ready to begin making cheese, Florian will come out to help us get set up and train us in his recipes and techniques. We have been experimenting with making cheese (with some pretty awesome results) for the past two years and we’re eager to add more knowledge to our limited cheese making repertoire. We are also so excited to make real Alpine cheeses from our cows’ milk! After all, they are the real Alpine cows - Brown Swiss - and we are eagerly anticipating making delectable, creamy, mouthwatering cheese to share!